To an approximate scale of 1:150

[Measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks

Bernardo della Volpaia

This section is taken transversely through the building, as is indicated by the semi-circular niche on its far right. It accurately records the paired Corinthian columns and their entablature with its pulvinated frieze, and also the dome’s elongated profile and the small circular recess at its centre. More problematic is the representation of the annular barrel vault. It springs from above the ambulatory arches, but it is shown here rising from below the apexes of these arches. Also problematic is the indication of a cornice at the springing point of the vault, which does not exist in the building in its current state. However, there is much evidence that the ambulatory walls were originally revetted in marble (Rasch-Arbeiter 2007, pp. 83–84) making it likely that such a feature once provided a neat junction between the wall and vault. A moulding at this level is shown in most early internal representations of the building, such as Dosio’s impressive cut-away view in the Uffizi, and so it must have been removed during the building’s radical restoration in the nineteenth century (see Rasch-Arbeiter pp. 11–12). The drawing is largely orthogonal, although the forward-projecting arches cut through at both the main and clerestory levels are shown in perspective. It is something of an exception among early elevational drawings of the interior, which are usually perspectival.

The presence of a large-scale section is rather anomalous in this part in the codex which is devoted mainly to plans. Yet, as with the coverage of the Temple of Minerva Medica (Fol. 9r/Ashby 15) and the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli (Fol. 14v/ Ashby 24), there was sufficient space on the page to include a section as well as a plan, and, in this instance, the depiction of the covered cemetery as well as the church itself resulted in a large space above it, which provided an opportunity to fill it with the section.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giovannantonio Dosio] Florence, GDSU, 2511 Ar (Hülsen 1933, pp. VIII and 68)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 12v/Ashby 21 (Drawing 1 on this page)

Ashby 1904, pp. 20–21
Census, ID 44093

Drawing

Digitisation of the Codex Coner has been made possible through the generosity of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Berlin.

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